Dear Reader:
I realize now that I have been aware of God Winks a lot longer than I ever remembered. 1962 was a pivotal year of change and uncertainty in my life…actually somewhat resembling the way 2017 is starting out.
I was in the seventh grade at Horace Sisk Junior High and was being “bussed” to this newly built school outside Fayetteville, North Carolina …closer to Fort Bragg. Besides leaving my neighborhood schools I was on the bus about 30 minutes going and coming from school. Mother had already had a family meeting and told us that she thought we needed to move back to Laurens, South Carolina…her birth place…to help with her aged, ailing mother at the end of the school year.
As if this wasn’t enough change to swallow…the Cuban Missile Crisis hit just two months into the school year…October of 1962. If we couldn’t walk home from school in fifteen minutes…(which I no longer could) mother had to sign a waiver saying that we would stay at school in the basement in case of an emergency situation…which could have possibly been a nuclear holocaust for all of us.
I was terrified and crying every morning that I left for school. Mother tried to reassure my two brothers and myself that everything would work out…masking her own terror no doubt.
One morning, while eating Kellog’s corn flakes, I glanced idly at the box and saw their slogan at the time: “The Best to You Each Morning.” I had been up most of the night again and had prayed so hard that nothing bad happened and then suddenly it was as if God was answering me and letting me know that it was going to be all right.”
It was that same morning, while in Mr. Owen’s dreaded math class, (with the black and white educational televisions on in every class…and the volume partially muted)…that suddenly he jumped up and turned up the volume!
Two of the Soviet ships nearing the blockade around Cuba slowly started turning around. Mr. Owens started shouting and we heard all the teachers cheering in the halls. Walter Cronkite was explaining what was happening and by the next day the iconic line of Secretary of State Dean Rusk was written on the top of each blackboard…“We were eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked.”
God had given everyone concerned the best response to their prayers: “The Best to You Each Morning.” (Even back then I was a visual prayer receiver)
*The only way I remembered this incident was that I was looking through an old scrapbook I started keeping in 1962 until I graduated from college…and even with a few wedding photos. It wasn’t until I came across one page in it from December 31, 1962 that I saw the scribbled Kellogg’s saying on the side of the paper with the word “Remember” in front of it and the memory came flooding back.
I know you can’t read my 13 year-old resolutions that I spelled as “revolutions” (Freudian slip) the night before 1963 but I will show you a withered old page from that evening many moons ago and tell you what I wrote…pretty funny.
- Do better in school work 2. help more around the house 3. help in church work 4. have more social activities *5. I hope to get braces
*( Later added) I got them and gosh I wish I hadn’t!
I promise to do these things and signed in Becky Barbour….Happy New Year….Tomorrow will be 1963.
***You can barely see on the left side but I wrote: Remember: Kelloggs “The Best to You Each Morning.”
Little did I know then that the next year would unfold with the assassination of Kennedy when I was in the ninth grade. I forget sometimes just how hard it must have been on our parents to raise us ‘baby boomers’ during the Cold War and then the Hot One (Vietnam.) Today I worry for my children and grandchildren like my mother and her mother and her mother did before me.
So until tomorrow…I wish for everyone: “The Best to You Each Morning.” God sure does!
“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
Amen…
On Jan 30, 2017 6:03 AM, “Chapel of Hope Stories” wrote:
> Becky Dingle posted: ” Dear Reader: I realize now that I have been aware > of God Winks a lot longer than I ever remembered. 1962 was a pivotal year > of change and uncertainty in my life…actually somewhat resembling the way > 2017 is starting out. I was in the seventh gr” > Respond to this post by replying above this line > New post on *Chapel of Hope Stories* > “The Best to You > Each Morning” > by > Becky Dingle > > [image: 1961-kellogg-s-corn-flakes-ad-what-s-the-good-word-bird] > > > Dear Reader: > > I realize now that I have been aware of God Winks a lot longer than I ever > remembered. 1962 was a pivotal year of change and uncertainty in my > life…actually somewhat resembling the way 2017 is starting out. > > I was in the seventh grade at Horace Sisk Junior High and was being > “bussed” to this newly built school outside Fayetteville, North Carolina > …closer to Fort Bragg. Besides leaving my neighborhood schools I was on > the bus about 30 minutes going and coming from school. Mother had already > had a family meeting and told us that she thought we needed to move back to > Laurens, South Carolina…her birth place…to help with her aged, ailing > mother at the end of the school year. > > As if this wasn’t enough change to swallow…the Cuban Missile Crisis hit > just two months into the school year…October of 1962. If we couldn’t walk > home from school in fifteen minutes…(which I no longer could) mother had > to sign a waiver saying that we would stay at school in the basement in > case of an emergency situation…which could have possibly been a nuclear > holocaust for all of us. > > I was terrified and crying every morning that I left for school. Mother > tried to reassure my two brothers and myself that everything would work > out…masking her own terror no doubt. > > One morning, while eating Kellog’s corn flakes, I glanced idly at the box > and saw their slogan at the time: *”The Best to You Each* *Morning*.” I > had been up most of the night again and had prayed so hard that nothing bad > happened and then suddenly it was as if God was answering me and letting me > know that it was going to be all right.” > > It was that same morning, while in Mr. Owen’s dreaded math class, (with > the black and white educational televisions on in every class…and the > volume partially muted)…that suddenly he jumped up and turned up the > volume! > > Two of the Soviet ships nearing the blockade around Cuba slowly started > turning around. Mr. Owens started shouting and we heard all the teachers > cheering in the halls. Walter Cronkite was explaining what was happening > and by the next day the iconic line of Secretary of State Dean Rusk was > written on the top of each blackboard…*”We were eyeball to eyeball and > I think the other fellow just blinked.” * > > God had given everyone concerned the best response to their prayers: *”The > Best to You Each Morning.” (Even back then I was a visual prayer receiver)* > > *The only way I remembered this incident was that I was looking through an > old scrapbook I started keeping in 1962 until I graduated from > college…and even with a few wedding photos. It wasn’t until I came across > one page in it from December 31, 1962 that I saw the scribbled Kellogg’s > saying on the side of the paper with the word “Remember” in front of it and > the memory came flooding back. > > I know you can’t read my 13 year-old resolutions that I spelled as > “revolutions” (Freudian slip) the night before 1963 but I will show you a > withered old page from that evening many moons ago and tell you what I > wrote…pretty funny. > > [image: thumbnail_fullsizerender] > > > 1. Do better in school work 2. help more around the house 3. help in > church work 4. have more social activities *5. I hope to get braces > > *( Later added) I got them and gosh I wish I hadn’t! > > I promise to do these things and signed in Becky Barbour….Happy New > Year….Tomorrow will be 1963. > > ***You can barely see
Love ya Gin-g!